What does Tribe teach about slowing down?

At Tribe, the teaching on slowing down starts with creation itself. Brian Hunter walked the congregation through Genesis 1 and 2 to make a point that cuts against every January instinct: Adam was created on day six, which means his very first full day on the job was the day God had already declared as rest. God did not tell him to prove himself first or finish the list first. Rest came before the work of subduing and cultivating the earth had even begun. Brian puts it plainly: as a "different species of being," followers of Jesus are invited into a different rhythm than the world's default of hurry and urgency.

That rhythm shows up all through the way Jesus operated. Before his public ministry began, he withdrew into the wilderness. After John the Baptist was killed, when every human instinct would have pushed toward action, Jesus got in a boat and pulled away. The pattern Brian kept returning to is that Jesus consistently moved from rest to work, not the other way around. Brian says, "Rest subordinates our will to that of the father." The Sabbath, as Jesus himself said in Mark 2, was made to meet the needs of people, not to be a rigid religious burden. The need it addresses is real and human.

The teaching does not leave slowing down at the level of a full day off. Brian drew it down into ordinary moments: finding a place of peace before walking into a hard conversation, before pulling out of the driveway, before reacting to something stressful. The question he put to the room, "Can you rest even on day one of the job?", is meant to land as a genuine challenge, not a rhetorical one. Slowing down, at Tribe, is not presented as a reward for people who have already done enough. It is the starting point.

Taught from Genesis 1:26 - 2:3 · Mark 2 · 2 Corinthians 5:17